Sunday, 15 January 2012

As you might have read in my previous posts, I'm on a bit of an economy drive. For a few months now I've been keeping a houshold book and realised that I spend a lot of money on food that I either never cook, which of course is not just bad for the environment, but also for my bank balance and that I spend far too much on bad canteen food at work.

Of course as a food lover that doesn't mean that I would eat less well or bad food to save money. It also doesn't mean that I don't still peruse websites such as Fine Food Specialist and order some Chinese Flower Tea as a special treat to myself. In fact if anything I think I'm eating better, as I plan meals for the week ahead, avoiding waste and making sure that I include seasonal produce and plenty of healthy options instead of opting for a lazy after work take away.

One of the seasonal fruits available here in England at the moment is Forced Rhubarb, which is beautifully pink and sweet and such a nice treat on these cold January days when you might just be getting tired of the other local seasonal produce available, such as cabbages and kale.

I guess that's the reason why this weekend's Guardian featured a couple of Dan Lepard's rhubarb recipes. The Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake looked so good that my friend H and I got to work in the kitchen yesterday afternoon. Delicious sweet and tangy rhubarb and warm spices, how could that not be good. If you cannot get the early forced rhubarb where you live, just wait a few months and make it with normal rhubarb. I promise it'll be worth the wait.

By the time the cake was out of the form it was getting a little dark and I also only had my mobile phone camera, so the pictures might not fully do it justice. The first picture shows the beautifully pink, uncooked rhubarb before pouring the cake batter into the pan.

Line a 20cm springform cake tin with a sheet of buttered baking paper.

Place the rhubarb pieces in lines across the bottom of your springform tin.

Sprinkle with caster sugar and lemon juice.

In a saucepan over medium heat, bring the muscovado sugar, black treacle, honey and spices to a boil.

Take the pan of the heat and pour the mix into a large mixing bowl.

Add the butter and the sourcream and stir with a wooden spoon until well mixed.

Add the egg and beat in, followed by the flour, ginger and soda bicarb.

Pour the mix over the rhubarb and bake in the middle of the oven for about an hour. (Mine took 1 hour and 5minutes, but I covered it loosely after about 50 minutes with some foil to stop the top from getting too dark.)

7 comments:

Oh my Sylvie! Just look at the colour of that rhubarb! How pretty! That cake looks delicious as well. I wish I wasn't trying to lose some weight! Oh the heck with it. I think this cake would be worth the sacrifice! xxoo

Hi Sylvie - Lucy again! I did make this and it tasted wonderful....but it was less than pretty, my rhubarb melted to almost nothing and created a lot of sticky juice.........I did everything as you said, EXCEPT I used baking paper instead of foil - I wouldn't have thought this would make much difference - would you? Lovely flavour combinations though and it got eaten up very quickly despite the looks! Lucy

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I love food and I love sharing my enthusiasm for good quality ingredients and often simple recipes. I am German but live in Manchester, England and I use this blog to share what's cooking and baking in my kitchen. I'd love to hear from you so please leave a comment or feel free to ask me a question!